Arts & Culture
Art as Ethnography
One of Indonesia's most distinguished artists is also one of Kenneth George's best friends. George, a professor of anthropology who studies Indonesian politics and culture, harnesses that coincidence in his latest book, A.D. Pirous: Vision, Faith and a Journey into Indonesia, 1955-2002.
The book tells the story of both postcolonial Indonesia and of Pirous. The artist, who combines traditional Muslim forms such as Qur'anic calligraphy with Western abstraction, is one of Southeast Asia's most innovative painters.
George befriended Pirous seventeen years ago, after he was asked to serve as a translator for the artist during an American tour of museums. "He gave me my first lesson in art history," George says. The painter remained an influence on George as he researched how political and social themes are communicated through art.
As Pirous prepared for his first career retrospective show, George was busy conducting an ethnographic study of the artist's process. "Every one of his paintings contains a story," George says. "I think of them as lessons in living with the violence and uncertainty around us."
— Barbara Wolff '77, MA'79
The book tells the story of both postcolonial Indonesia and of Pirous. The artist, who combines traditional Muslim forms such as Qur'anic calligraphy with Western abstraction, is one of Southeast Asia's most innovative painters.
George befriended Pirous seventeen years ago, after he was asked to serve as a translator for the artist during an American tour of museums. "He gave me my first lesson in art history," George says. The painter remained an influence on George as he researched how political and social themes are communicated through art.
As Pirous prepared for his first career retrospective show, George was busy conducting an ethnographic study of the artist's process. "Every one of his paintings contains a story," George says. "I think of them as lessons in living with the violence and uncertainty around us."
— Barbara Wolff '77, MA'79
Mixed Media
Times are busy for David Furumoto. He's teaching three classes, acting in two University Theatre productions, and getting ready to direct the biggest show of the spring semester — a joint University Theatre-University Opera production of The Mikado. Things have been so crazy that he's hardly had any time to play the bagpipes.
Confused? Welcome to the world of David Furumoto, UW-Madison's only Hawaiian-born, Japanese-American, bagpipe-playing, kilt-wearing, frequently barefoot professor who specializes in kabuki theater.
Furumoto is something of an expert on confusion — or at least fusion. Since joining the faculty of the theater and drama department in 2000, he's been melding cultural influences, making for strange and often delightful combinations. Last fall, he directed University Theatre's performance of Trojan Women — a classical Greek tragedy — using a mélange of Asian theatrical traditions, a kimono-clad chorus, and a geisha-inspired Helen of Troy. "I think it kind of made people sit back in their seats," he says, "because they weren't expecting it."
Confused? Welcome to the world of David Furumoto, UW-Madison's only Hawaiian-born, Japanese-American, bagpipe-playing, kilt-wearing, frequently barefoot professor who specializes in kabuki theater.
Furumoto is something of an expert on confusion — or at least fusion. Since joining the faculty of the theater and drama department in 2000, he's been melding cultural influences, making for strange and often delightful combinations. Last fall, he directed University Theatre's performance of Trojan Women — a classical Greek tragedy — using a mélange of Asian theatrical traditions, a kimono-clad chorus, and a geisha-inspired Helen of Troy. "I think it kind of made people sit back in their seats," he says, "because they weren't expecting it."
Born in Honolulu to a Japanese father and a Scottish-American mother, Furumoto is something of a mélange himself. In high school, he fell in love with kabuki, a centuries-old staple of Japanese theater, featuring elaborately costumed characters, over-the-top emotions, stylized action, and often jarring, exaggerated speech.
Soon after, he picked up a record of Scottish bagpipe music, mostly because he liked the photo on the cover. He's managed to stay on both of these divergent paths ever since, and will even add his bagpipes, along with his acting talents, to University Theatre's Hamlet this December.
All of this makes Furumoto a natural for The Mikado. Gilbert and Sullivan set the operetta in Japan, but the story is pure Victorian England — a comic send-up of authority and the lengths to which people go to subvert it. Some directors just eschew the whole Japanese thing, preferring to focus on its Englishness. But Furumoto plans to "return it to the country where it's based," using kabuki techniques to amplify the story and re-energize its sense of place. "There is a lot of correlation between Japanese society and British society," he says, noting that he hopes to show how much the cultures have in common.
Soon after, he picked up a record of Scottish bagpipe music, mostly because he liked the photo on the cover. He's managed to stay on both of these divergent paths ever since, and will even add his bagpipes, along with his acting talents, to University Theatre's Hamlet this December.
All of this makes Furumoto a natural for The Mikado. Gilbert and Sullivan set the operetta in Japan, but the story is pure Victorian England — a comic send-up of authority and the lengths to which people go to subvert it. Some directors just eschew the whole Japanese thing, preferring to focus on its Englishness. But Furumoto plans to "return it to the country where it's based," using kabuki techniques to amplify the story and re-energize its sense of place. "There is a lot of correlation between Japanese society and British society," he says, noting that he hopes to show how much the cultures have in common.
Wedding East and West is nothing new for Furumoto — a guy who wouldn't be here, after all, if East hadn't wedded West. For his master's thesis, he adapted Shakespeare's Richard III for kabuki, and he says he's on a mission "to prove to the rest of the world that kabuki is a valid theatrical technique that can be applied to many works."
That includes the Greek masters and their penchant for melodrama. And as for Shakespeare —"don't get me started about Shakespeare," he says. The Bard may have been an Englishman, but Furumoto maintains his stuff is pure kabuki, full of violence and mistaken identity and rhetorical timbre. The style is a perfect complement, adding edge to soliloquies and never wilting in the heat of Shakespeare's emotion. "Kabuki isn't afraid of emotion," he says.
"The more I see these different theatrical forms, the more I start seeing a lot of universality to them," Furumoto explains. "They're not just totally weird and different. When you start really watching and getting into them, you can see human truths that appear from all over."
— Michael Penn
That includes the Greek masters and their penchant for melodrama. And as for Shakespeare —"don't get me started about Shakespeare," he says. The Bard may have been an Englishman, but Furumoto maintains his stuff is pure kabuki, full of violence and mistaken identity and rhetorical timbre. The style is a perfect complement, adding edge to soliloquies and never wilting in the heat of Shakespeare's emotion. "Kabuki isn't afraid of emotion," he says.
"The more I see these different theatrical forms, the more I start seeing a lot of universality to them," Furumoto explains. "They're not just totally weird and different. When you start really watching and getting into them, you can see human truths that appear from all over."
— Michael Penn
Story Time
The first annual Wisconsin Book Festival took over downtown Madison for five days in October, attracting book lovers, writers, and critics for a celebration of reading. The festival, sponsored by the Wisconsin Humanities Council (WHC) with aid from several UW organizations, brought nationally known, prize-winning authors to Madison for book readings, attracted aspiring poets and writers for workshops, and featured children's events.
"The Wisconsin Book Festival is about celebrating our literary heritage and sharing ideas," says Dean Bakopoulos, festival director. "There was lots of discussion at our events — people didn't just listen to lectures, they interacted with the presenters. It was a weekend for authors and readers to meet."
Through a WHC grant program, the Wisconsin Book Festival will extend its programs to the general public year-round. Community groups can apply for funding that will allow them to start local literacy programs. "The idea is to take humanities generally found only in the classroom and bring them to the public venue," says Bakopoulos.
— Erin Hannan Hueffner '00
"The Wisconsin Book Festival is about celebrating our literary heritage and sharing ideas," says Dean Bakopoulos, festival director. "There was lots of discussion at our events — people didn't just listen to lectures, they interacted with the presenters. It was a weekend for authors and readers to meet."
Through a WHC grant program, the Wisconsin Book Festival will extend its programs to the general public year-round. Community groups can apply for funding that will allow them to start local literacy programs. "The idea is to take humanities generally found only in the classroom and bring them to the public venue," says Bakopoulos.
— Erin Hannan Hueffner '00
Press On
When Madison's Alliant Energy asked Tandem Press to provide the artwork for its worldwide headquarters in August 2001, it wasn't just the beginning of another project for the printmaking studio. It was the start of a whole new business venture.
Affiliated with the Department of Art in the School of Education, Tandem Press has now added art consulting services to its printmaking and in-house framing operations.
Originally created in 1987 to foster research, collaboration, experimentation, and innovation in the printmaking field, Tandem Press produces high-quality prints by internationally recognized artists. "In addition to creating prints at Tandem, the [visiting] artists — fifty-seven so far — deliver lectures and critique student works," says Executive Director Paula Panczenko. "We provide a training program for graduate students that is the only one of its kind in the United States. Students work alongside the artists and observe how they engage in the creative process."
Affiliated with the Department of Art in the School of Education, Tandem Press has now added art consulting services to its printmaking and in-house framing operations.
Originally created in 1987 to foster research, collaboration, experimentation, and innovation in the printmaking field, Tandem Press produces high-quality prints by internationally recognized artists. "In addition to creating prints at Tandem, the [visiting] artists — fifty-seven so far — deliver lectures and critique student works," says Executive Director Paula Panczenko. "We provide a training program for graduate students that is the only one of its kind in the United States. Students work alongside the artists and observe how they engage in the creative process."
Tandem Press prints currently hang in several prestigious galleries, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Museum of American Art and National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. Global corporations such as Philip Morris, Hallmark, Deutsche Bank, and Microsoft display Tandem prints, as do Madison-based Marshall Erdman and Associates, Pleasant Company, and Rayovac.
For the Alliant Energy project, Tandem selected new work, updated materials from the company's former office, and determined art placement throughout the building. "We selected internationally renowned artists, women artists, and artists of color to signify the multicultural communities throughout the world where Alliant Energy has offices," says Panczenko.
Curator Timothy Rooney believes the new consulting service will allow Tandem Press to thrive. "With our prints already hanging in many museums and corporations, it's a natural progression for us to add art consulting to our services so we can remain self supporting."
— Candice Andrews '77
For the Alliant Energy project, Tandem selected new work, updated materials from the company's former office, and determined art placement throughout the building. "We selected internationally renowned artists, women artists, and artists of color to signify the multicultural communities throughout the world where Alliant Energy has offices," says Panczenko.
Curator Timothy Rooney believes the new consulting service will allow Tandem Press to thrive. "With our prints already hanging in many museums and corporations, it's a natural progression for us to add art consulting to our services so we can remain self supporting."
— Candice Andrews '77
Artifacts
Peter Helmberger, professor emeritus in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, spent a career studying agricultural economics, but now he delves into darker subjects. His second mystery novel, A Crows' Jamboree, was published last summer.
UW-Madison's Cinematheque will hold its fifth annual Polish Film Fest in early December, with a look at movies that deal with issues of contemporary Polish life. Cinematheque is organized by a coalition of academic departments and student film groups.
The Elvehjem Museum of Art reopened its Asian Gallery in September. The artwork had been removed from view for more than two years while temporary exhibits filled its space. Now reinstalled, the collection includes nearly thirty sculptures, as well as scroll paintings and ceramics from across Asia.
UW-Madison's Cinematheque will hold its fifth annual Polish Film Fest in early December, with a look at movies that deal with issues of contemporary Polish life. Cinematheque is organized by a coalition of academic departments and student film groups.
The Elvehjem Museum of Art reopened its Asian Gallery in September. The artwork had been removed from view for more than two years while temporary exhibits filled its space. Now reinstalled, the collection includes nearly thirty sculptures, as well as scroll paintings and ceramics from across Asia.
The UW Jazz Big Band has cut its first CD, Swing Classics and Beyond. The CD was recorded in part during a concert at Madison's Luther's Blues in April, and it's being sold through the School of Music.
Culminating seven years of work, the School of Music is releasing its Centennial Commissions CD, a collection of six songs created for the school's hundredth anniversary, which it celebrated in 1995.
Culminating seven years of work, the School of Music is releasing its Centennial Commissions CD, a collection of six songs created for the school's hundredth anniversary, which it celebrated in 1995.
